Drought-hit Malawi farmers use sugar, fish soup to battle pests
DEDZA, Malawi — Armed with fish soup and neem leaves, as well as chemical pesticides, Malawi’s droughthit farmers are fighting a caterpillar that is devouring their crops and putting them at risk of hunger.
The fall armyworm, an invasive Latin American species that is harder to detect and eradicate than its African counterpart, has attacked maize plants covering one fifth of Malawi’s arable land, according to the Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Researchers and farmers are fighting back with both imported and local approaches, while also attempting to combat the effects of a prolonged dry spell.
Farmer Joyce Thom, for instance, from Dedza district in central Malawi, is applying crushed neem leaves to her maize stalks to kill the armyworm.
“Some farmers are also using sugar mixed with soup made from fish called usipa, which is applied on the affected stems,” Thom said.
“The sugar and soup attract ants which later feed on the fall armyworm themselves. Finally, (there is) the use of soil applied on stems where the worm hides, to suffocate it and break the cycle.”
Nearly 2 million people are at risk of food shortages because of the effects of armyworms and drought, Agriculture Minister Joseph Mwanamvekha said earlier this month.
In response to the crisis, the government banned the export of maize earlier this month.
Several African countries, including South Africa, have managed to contain the pest using chemical pesticides.
Kenya made major steps to control it last year by training farmers to use pesticides correctly and to alternate them to prevent the caterpillar from developing resistance.
Malawi is testing the effectiveness of chemicals such as Deltanex 25EC to control the armyworm, and researching which crop varieties are more resistant to the pest, said Osborne Tsoka, a spokesman for the Agriculture Ministry.
Although farmers in Malawi are already using pesticides against the pest, researchers are also exploring other techniques, he said.
These include the effectiveness of using enemies found in nature to attack the armyworm, scent traps armed with deadly chemicals and pheromone traps that can render the worms infertile, he said.
The government is also training its field officers, farmers and communities to identify and manage the pest, Tsoka said.
Severe drought in recent years has pushed many farming families in southern Africa deeper into poverty.
At the start of 2017, about 6.5 million Malawians, more than a third of the population, were dependent on food aid.